The present invention relates to a heat-and-power engine and can be used for producing superefficient internal combustion engines for direct conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy of a rotary work shaft.
It is known to convert thermal energy produced during fuel combustion into mechanical energy of rotation of a work shaft with the use of linear movement of a piston in a cylinder and a crank mechanism connected with it, as disclosed for example in The New York Times, Oct. 13, 1991, and The New York Times, Apr. 21, 1993. In this internal combustion engine at the moment of maximum pressure of hot gases, the piston with the crank mechanism is located in the upper dead point. In this position at the maximum temperature of hot gases, there is no conversion of heat energy into mechanical energy of movement in the combustion chamber since the lever arm of the crankshaft is equal to zero and therefore the torque on the work shaft is equal to zero. At this moment there is the maximum jump of temperature between hot gas in the combustion chamber and a cylinder block surrounding the same. A substantial part of the thermal energy is transmitted to the cylinder block and is discharged into atmosphere through water cooling. This causes low energy efficiency of known internal combustion engines.
This can be also proven from the thermodynamic point of view since in the above described case the polytrope is far from an ideal one, and the area inside the polytrope is small. In other words, the useful energy taken for the mechanical movement is low. After this, when the crankshaft turns by 90.degree. and the lever arm becomes maximal, the gas pressure above the piston is small as compared with the maximum pressure and as a result the torque is also small. Therefore, in the known system with the high gas pressure applied to the piston there is no substantial lever arm, and when there is a lever arm the gas pressure applied to the piston is small. In such a system the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy of rotation of work shaft is carried out inefficiently. Moreover, the utilization of the crank mechanism for direct conversion of linear movement of the piston system directly into the rotary movement of the work shaft due to the upper dead point limits the value of specific pressure. In this system at the moment of fuel combustion the piston with the crankshaft is in the upper dead point, the lever arm is qual to zero, the torque of the shaft is equal to zero, and the total pressure applied to the piston is used for impact through the pin and the connecting rod against the crankshaft and to the bearings which support the connecting rod and the connecting shaft. The utilization of high pressure P2 in this case requires stronger moveable parts of the engine, greater bearings, crankshaft and therefore the increase of size and weight of the engine as a whole. This in turn leads to heavier engines and worsening of its compact construction. In order to reduce the impact against the bearings of a crankshaft to some extent it is necessary to shift the time between the position of the piston in the upper dead point and the moment of fuel combustion (delay) in order to produce a torque of the work shaft which is not equal to zero. However, it does not provide a substantial improvement. This leads to additional energy losses, which reduces energy efficiency of the engine.